Daylight raises the well-being of a building’s users. The dynamics and power of daylight are unrivalled and will be integrated into the lighting design wherever possible. In addition, the admission of daylight, provided that this is carefully incorporated into the design, will result in energy saving.

Incorporation into civil-engineering design.

Most will be gained if the use of daylight is incorporated into an optimum civil-engineering design from the very early stages of the design process. This should be done in close consultation with the architect and client. Take, for example:

the orientation of the building;

sufficiently large windows;

the possibility to make use of atriums.

By means of calculations and simulations, we can verify whether the desired results will be obtained. Where civil engineering is concerned, increasing the surface area of windows may seem an obvious solution; however, this may not always be the ideal one. Blinding and heat loads may be increased. That is why the incorporation of daylight into the design should be viewed holistically - together with the other MEP systems in the building, such as heating, cooling, and sun protection.

Innovation

Sometimes, more innovative solutions may be required to allow more daylight into a building. Various daylight systems are available on the market today, including:

solar tubes;

light boards;

anidolic mirrors;

and many more.

In addition, it is important to have the lighting installation adapt to the amount of daylight. Daylight sensors and light-management systems may contribute to a substantial reduction of energy consumption where artificial lighting is concerned.